Badgers match up to Plasies

The teams from Merensky and
Stanford Lake College took a break from their midwinter exams last week to face off on the hockey fields. The Stanfordian Honey Badgers played host to the Blue Brigade in what would be an extraordinary season finale.
The two neighbours from the outskirts of Tzaneen are both formidable on the pitch and have, in the past, shown that they can defend those titles ferociously against even the toughest schools in the province. Just last week the teams from Merensky proved their mettle when they mauled Ben Vorster in their league encounter.
In the first game of the day, the Second Team boys crossed sticks in a rollercoaster encounter which eventually saw the visiting Plasies put three past the Badger-keeper to win the match by 3 goals to 1. Kieran Albertus, Delux Jooste and John-D Ball were the Plasie-strikers who sealed their host’s fate.

Unperturbed, the Badgers hit back hard to claim a 0-1 victory in the u/14 Boys encounter, a 0-1 win over the Plasie First team and a very close 3-2 victory in the u/15 encounter. It was nothing short of an epic clash when, at almost full time, the u/15 teams were locked in a 2-all draw. Through perseverance and unrivalled determination, the Badgers struck in the dying moments of the game to take the win.
Later that day during the girls’ encounter, the visiting u/16 team had to make up for lost ground following the defeat of all but one of their boys’ teams. Meghan MacNicol, Jenelle de Jonge, Jamie van der Merwe and Zoe Kader stepped up to the plate and ensured a fantastic 5-0 win for Merensky. Michaela Dale was named player of the match.

The Second Ladies repeated the performance and chalked up a decent 2-1 victory while the u/15’s concede a 1-2 defeat. The senior ladies took to the pitch in the afternoon highlight. Both teams were evenly matched with neither willing to give a single metre worth of possession to their opponents. After 90 minutes of some of the most intense hockey displayed this season, the Laker Ladies edged a goal past the visitor’s goal herder to claim a 1-0 victory.

The students will now put away their hockey gear in preparation for their mid-terms. Players from both schools, however, will meet again in July when they take to the pitch as team mates for the provincial tournaments.
- Joe Dreyer
joe@bulletin.us.com
- Photos by
GKT SportPics